Creed Taylor Produced

My source for archival newspapers just acquired a few thousand issues of the San Francisco Chronical. This adds a whole new source of information for me. One I found today I thought was worth sharing. Talk about nose out of joint!

It was written by John L. Wasserman ^[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Wasserman and included a dig at both CTI’s concert organizational efforts, and Leonard Feather, who MC’d the CTI All-Stars events in 1971. In this case, the concert in question was the CTI All-Stars Summer Jazz concert at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco on Friday, 16th July 1971. This would was the first ever CTI All-Stars concert, and the first the CTI organisation would have staged.

Feather wrote a review for the Los Angeles that appeared in the LA Times on Monday 19th. Wasserman’s column appeared 2-days later on Pg 44 of the Chronicle on Wednesday, 21st. Feather described the Friday concert at the Masonic Auditorium as a “preview” ^[2]A copy of the Leonard Feather Los Angeles Time article can be found in http://ctproduced.com/the-story-of-the-cti-all-stars-live/.

In his November 1992 Jazzletter – Gene Lees described Wasserman as “the arrogant and ignorant music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle.”

The column is reproduced here as accurately as possible, while not using the original layout and typeface. Punctuation is as close as possible to the original but may have been changed to aid readability. Spelling has not been changed. For reference, the original column can be seen below.

On The Town

‘Summer Jazz’ – A Real Rip-Off

By John L. Wasserman.

THE EXPOSURE of rip-off artists is, as you I know, all the rage these days. Often, however, the only ripping-off is done by the finger-pointers, who rip off the time and energy of innocent bystanders with their lunatic accusations and ego-trip hysteria.

Last Friday night, however, an authentic rip-off occurred at the Masonic Auditorium ……. a financial and artistic exploitation which managed to screw both audience and musicians.

The occasion was a concert labeled “CTI Summer Jazz.” which featured a number of superlative young jazz musicians all of whom record for the CTI (Creed Taylor Inc.) lable. Taylor is a producer of jazz albums — notably for Verve — who recently started his own label.

TO GIVE CREDIT where due. the one part of the event which ran smoothly was the music itself, flutist Hubert Laws, trumpet player Freddie Hubbard, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, bassist Ron Carter, alto saxophonist Hank Crawford, guitarist George Benson, pianist-organist Johnny Hammond (formerly Johnny “Hammond” Smith and no
relation to John Hammond of Columbia Records or his son), drummer Billy Cobham and percussionist Airto Moreira all except the latter two leaders of their own groups played stirringly. The concert was set up so that Benson, Hammond, Carter, Cobham and Moreira furnished an evening-long rhythm section, with solos coming both within their ensemble and from the horn players.

The entire concert comprised only nine numbers — all but one either in release (“Fire and Rain” from Hubert Laws’ “Afro-Classic” album. CTI6006) or scheduled for the next two months. The leader on the album — as with Laws and “Afro-Classic” — was featured, but long solos were also taken by other members of the aggregation.

Laws played like an ethereal juggernaut. Hubbard spat and snarled and bent like a bow (Miles Davis lives . . . ), Turrentine was fat and sassy. Benson muted and agile, Carter a block of solid virtuoso, Crawford a queen bee with honey tones, Hammond strong-arm man. Moreira a genius switching from bang to thump to scratch to crack like an octopus trying to fight off eight skindivers.

THAT MUCH was lovely. Otherwise, “CTI Summer Jazz” was a farce.

The handwriting on the wall began to emerge when the handwriting to The Chronicle didn’t, i.e., the newspaper was never informed of the existence of the concert. This is not a matter of hurt feelings a much as irresponsibility on the part of the promoter (not a local man, incidentally). Jazz lovers deserve to he informed; musicians deserve to have an audience as large as its potential.

After hearing something on KJAZ. I contacted the local CTI distributors. At that time, two days before the concert, they had only just been notified themselves. I called Creed Taylor in New York, got an associate and was loftily informed that “If you had 3000 tickets to sell, and had sold 3000 tickets, would YOU worry about promotion.” I allowed as how I wouldn’t, called the Downtown Center Box Office and found out they had been given 400 tickets to handle and had sold , at that time, 29.

AS FOR THE tickets, they were priced at $6.50 (a dollar less in advance, if you didn’t have to pay a
service charge) and were unreserved. That is simply unheard of. To charge $6.50 a ticket for the worst
seat in the house is extraordinary; to charge that much and not even guarantee two seats together is unprecedented.

To add insult to injury, the whole thing was a CTI promotion — from the artists to the program to the choice of tunes to the shilling for the record company done by master of ceremonies Leonard Feather, the noted jazz critic.

THE UPSHOT WAS that the concert was a financial failure (less than a thousand in the 3300 capacity Masonic), a potential audience was cheated because they (A) didn’t know about the concert (B) couldn’t afford it; and the musicians were cheated because 2000 people weren’t there who would have been under other circumstances.

In a day when several record companies are demonstrating the enlightened self-interest to under-write concerts by their own artists — and charging prices like 99c and $2.50 for major performers — it is incredible that CTI could have allowed this to happen. One local man was offered the opportunity to present “CTI Summer Jazz” here. There was only one tiny string — $5000 in front money.

All in all. a very strange way for Mr. Taylor to bring his artists and their recordings to the public.

As Gene Lees somewhat dismissively pointed out in his Jazzletter, Wasserman died in 1979 as the result of a car crash. Two others in another car were also killed. Wasserman’s blood alcohol level was found to be .26, nearly three times the legal limit at the time, and he was driving the wrong way on the freeway.

Following his death, his sister Abby Wasserman released a book of John’s columns. It was published by Chronicle Books in 1993 ^[3]Praise, vilification & sexual innuendo, or, How to be a critic : the selected writings of John L. Wasserman (1964-1979) / [edited] by Abby Wasserman ; with a special tribute by Michael McClure. … Continue reading. I have not read it but have ordered a copy.

UPDATE: Sept. 24th, 2025 – Added Wasserman Wikipedia link and details of the book of his columns.